Symphonic liberation of the British Empire: In 1866 a German music scholar wrote that “the English are the only civilised nation without music”. And it’s true that the Victorians had a deep suspicion towards symphony music – some people even feared that its rousing emotional power would bring about the downfall of the British Empire! But the imperial tones of Edward Elgar’s scores triggered a new trend: the rapturous Late Romantic works of Vaughan Williams, the sensuous Impressionism of Delius and the monumental sounds of Gustav Holst’s The Planets rapidly established a significant national symphonic culture – with overwhelming pomp and circumstance.